So we arrived in San Francisco a few days ago and after spending the night in a posh hotel in the city we met up with Liam, Nicky and Tom in our hostel in the Mission District. In the evening we met up with Oli and Katie as well who are here for a wedding. It was really nice to see so many people I knew at once, after not seeing anyone I knew for about 2 months. Last night we met up with Si too so there’s quite a Devon contingency here at the moment – or Devon Brethren as Archie would say.
We’ve already toured the thrift stores and found plenty of Burning Man outfits and been to a hardware store to pick up some more essentials like goggles and masks. Everyone’s getting pretty excited now – some of us (read Thomas Oscar) a little too excited and may have to be kept on a leash to prevent anything bad happening.
Today we’re heading downtown to Haight Ashbury and then Union Square for lunch at the Cheesecake Factory. Tomorrow we’re going to Alcatraz.
Friday, 28 August 2009
Sunday, 23 August 2009
Hot Water Beach and an almost Hot Water Game
Tom and I took a day trip out on Saturday up to the Coromandle peninsular to a beach that has hot springs running underneath it. Two hours either side of low tide one can dig a hole in the sand and sit in a home-made hot spring. And hot is the word! In some places it is very, very hot. Almost as hot as it was cool in fact.
After that we went for dinner in Katikati with Rob and Penny before watching the All Blacks almost lose to the Wallabies. Much to everyone's relief (not least the coach) the filthy Aussies gave away a penalty in the closing minutes which allowed the infamous Dan Carter to pull off a trademark kick. The highlights the following day neglected to mention his mile-wide drop kick attempt earlier on in the game. Very tactful.
Tonight Shirley and Phil are back from Melbourne and we're having our fist NZ barbecue. Tomorrow we fly to another side of the world to the land of excess. It's all go when you're on holiday you know.
After that we went for dinner in Katikati with Rob and Penny before watching the All Blacks almost lose to the Wallabies. Much to everyone's relief (not least the coach) the filthy Aussies gave away a penalty in the closing minutes which allowed the infamous Dan Carter to pull off a trademark kick. The highlights the following day neglected to mention his mile-wide drop kick attempt earlier on in the game. Very tactful.
Tonight Shirley and Phil are back from Melbourne and we're having our fist NZ barbecue. Tomorrow we fly to another side of the world to the land of excess. It's all go when you're on holiday you know.
Thursday, 20 August 2009
Exciting job prospects in the New World.
I too am looking for a hot boning side boner. That's a sexy job, right? Oh... wait...
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So it's been a while since I last updated with anything except pictures so I have a lot to tell you about. We are back in the Bay of Plenty at Shirley's and it's nice to be in a house again - you can leave the room and still be inside, it's a revolution!
As you might have seen from the pictures, the south island is breathtakingly beautiful in almost every direction. I've been keeping a log of the places we've been and where was nice and I began writing that it was an amazing drive with stunning scenery along the way but after a couple of days I realised that that is the norm and it's unusual to have boring scenery.
After we left Kiakora where I last wrote about our travels we went to Christchurch, the capital of the south island. It reminded me of England a bit but without the people. There was literally no people when we first arrived, just parks and fountains. It's a really nice looking city with a friendly feel about it and some great coffee places. We drove out to Lyttleton on the Banks Peninsular which was a lovely spot with some pretty bays with amazing views of the convoluted coastline. It was formed by two volcanoes, one of which we drove around along Summit Road with incredible views of Christchurch. It was a bit of a white-knuckle ride for Tom as it was very high up and there were no barriers at the side of the road.
From Christchurch we went inland towards Mount Cook. It was very cold all around this area but being amongst the snow-capped mountains was worth every extra layer we had to wear. The Tasman Glacier is the largest in New Zealand despite the fact it lost 5km from the terminal face quite recently which is now making up Lake Tasman and its floating icebergs. The glacial lakes around the Southern Alps are all bright turquoise caused by the finely ground glacial dust that is suspended in the water. At Lake Tokapo just down the road we went to the hot pools and watched the sun turn the snowy mountains orange and then pink as it set. Then we had hot chocolate fortified with Jameson's as we watched the moon rise. I felt very privileged to have done this, particularly after I watched the most beautiful sunrise I have ever seen, over the lake between two mountain peaks.
Our next major aim was to see Milford Sound. We drove through Queenstown and on to Te Anau where we booked on to a bus trip - It was great having a day off driving and I spent the whole time gawping out of the window and glass roof of the bus, reveling in the fact I did not have to watch the road! There was so much snow and huge mountains, and valleys, and snow! The drive there was easily as stunning as the fjord itself (Milford Sound is not actually a sound but a fjord). The boat cruise however was well worth the cost and we were truly humbled by the mountains rising up from the sea, waterfalls, the sun glinting on the snow - you get the picture.
There has been a lot of snow in the south island recently, and along with earthquakes the snow packs had become unstable so the road to Milford had been closed for the previous 9 days while they were performing controlled avalanches and clearing the road, so we were lucky our timing was pretty perfect. In fact the road was only open for 6 hours - they shut it again 30 minutes after we got out so we were really jammy. I'm so glad as well as it was a definite highlight of the trip and was the one thing I really didn't want to miss.
Another highlight were the glaciers. Huge steep masses of ice snaking through the valley carving it as it goes. The Franz Joseph is advancing at about 1m per day on average in response to snow that fell high in the mountains five years ago.
We continued our journey up the west coast and back towards Picton to catch the ferry, exploring the Marlborough Sounds which are beautiful - predictably. Our last day in the south island was spent on a wine tour around the Marlborogh wineries. This was another highlight for me. Tom and I tried every single wine and finished up satisfyingly drunk and with 4 bottles of expensive but exciting wine.
After the southbound ferry journey being so calm we had been lulled into a false sense of security with regards to the Cook Straight which was pretty nauseating with a moderate south-westerly swell. Tom and I spent most of the journey lying on the floor with our eyes closed wishing that 3 hours was shorter than it is.
On the way back up to Dorkland we went via Waitomo Caves. A network of huge limestone caverns with massive stalactites and stalagmites and gazillions of glowworms. I had never seen them before so it was really exciting - especially as we got to go in a boat on a river through the pitch-dark cave.
We are now having a few days doing very little as our eyes hurt from having looked at so much stuff over the last 3 weeks. We leave for California on Tuesday for the penultimate leg of our round trip. I'm looking forward to catching a bit of summer!
As you might have seen from the pictures, the south island is breathtakingly beautiful in almost every direction. I've been keeping a log of the places we've been and where was nice and I began writing that it was an amazing drive with stunning scenery along the way but after a couple of days I realised that that is the norm and it's unusual to have boring scenery.
After we left Kiakora where I last wrote about our travels we went to Christchurch, the capital of the south island. It reminded me of England a bit but without the people. There was literally no people when we first arrived, just parks and fountains. It's a really nice looking city with a friendly feel about it and some great coffee places. We drove out to Lyttleton on the Banks Peninsular which was a lovely spot with some pretty bays with amazing views of the convoluted coastline. It was formed by two volcanoes, one of which we drove around along Summit Road with incredible views of Christchurch. It was a bit of a white-knuckle ride for Tom as it was very high up and there were no barriers at the side of the road.
From Christchurch we went inland towards Mount Cook. It was very cold all around this area but being amongst the snow-capped mountains was worth every extra layer we had to wear. The Tasman Glacier is the largest in New Zealand despite the fact it lost 5km from the terminal face quite recently which is now making up Lake Tasman and its floating icebergs. The glacial lakes around the Southern Alps are all bright turquoise caused by the finely ground glacial dust that is suspended in the water. At Lake Tokapo just down the road we went to the hot pools and watched the sun turn the snowy mountains orange and then pink as it set. Then we had hot chocolate fortified with Jameson's as we watched the moon rise. I felt very privileged to have done this, particularly after I watched the most beautiful sunrise I have ever seen, over the lake between two mountain peaks.
Our next major aim was to see Milford Sound. We drove through Queenstown and on to Te Anau where we booked on to a bus trip - It was great having a day off driving and I spent the whole time gawping out of the window and glass roof of the bus, reveling in the fact I did not have to watch the road! There was so much snow and huge mountains, and valleys, and snow! The drive there was easily as stunning as the fjord itself (Milford Sound is not actually a sound but a fjord). The boat cruise however was well worth the cost and we were truly humbled by the mountains rising up from the sea, waterfalls, the sun glinting on the snow - you get the picture.
There has been a lot of snow in the south island recently, and along with earthquakes the snow packs had become unstable so the road to Milford had been closed for the previous 9 days while they were performing controlled avalanches and clearing the road, so we were lucky our timing was pretty perfect. In fact the road was only open for 6 hours - they shut it again 30 minutes after we got out so we were really jammy. I'm so glad as well as it was a definite highlight of the trip and was the one thing I really didn't want to miss.
Another highlight were the glaciers. Huge steep masses of ice snaking through the valley carving it as it goes. The Franz Joseph is advancing at about 1m per day on average in response to snow that fell high in the mountains five years ago.
We continued our journey up the west coast and back towards Picton to catch the ferry, exploring the Marlborough Sounds which are beautiful - predictably. Our last day in the south island was spent on a wine tour around the Marlborogh wineries. This was another highlight for me. Tom and I tried every single wine and finished up satisfyingly drunk and with 4 bottles of expensive but exciting wine.
After the southbound ferry journey being so calm we had been lulled into a false sense of security with regards to the Cook Straight which was pretty nauseating with a moderate south-westerly swell. Tom and I spent most of the journey lying on the floor with our eyes closed wishing that 3 hours was shorter than it is.
On the way back up to Dorkland we went via Waitomo Caves. A network of huge limestone caverns with massive stalactites and stalagmites and gazillions of glowworms. I had never seen them before so it was really exciting - especially as we got to go in a boat on a river through the pitch-dark cave.
We are now having a few days doing very little as our eyes hurt from having looked at so much stuff over the last 3 weeks. We leave for California on Tuesday for the penultimate leg of our round trip. I'm looking forward to catching a bit of summer!
Thursday, 13 August 2009
Saturday, 8 August 2009
Monday, 3 August 2009
The North Island and Beyond...
We spent a very cool week with Shirley and Phil in Katikati, having a massive home cooked supper every night in front of a wood-fired range and sleeping in a comfy bed every night. Our timing was excellent for this visit as cousin Robert and his girlfriend Penny had just finished a van tour of the south island and gave us plenty of insider knowledge about good places to stay and see along the way.
We also got to meet the littlest members of Tom's family, Jesse and Bradley who were so smiley and fun and their mum Emma.
We were also taken out to visit the local sites including Mount Maunganui which has great views of Tauranga from the summit. Tauranga itself was a nice city which increased its appeal when we had fush end chups down on the wharf, staright from the sea. Shirley lent us her car to do a couple of day trips. We visited Rotorua with it's mud pools and hot springs one day and the Karagahake Gorge another day which is very close to katikati and absolutely beautiful. Unfortunately the rain prevented us from doing any walking but we managed to squeeze in lunch at a winery instead.
We collected our new van - a monster compared to the one we had in Australia - from Aukland about 5 days ago and headed south on South Highway 1. We went in some great hot springs around lake Taupo that flowed straight into the river which was a highlight for me. It was a bit like being in Jenny's hot tub!
The Dept. of Conservation has great campsites here, loads of which are free in some lovely places so we've been staying at those mainly.
Yesterday we caught the ferry from Wellington to Picton. It's a notoriously bad bit of water the Cook Straights, but we didn't see a single wave. It was a lovely sunny day which gave us the best introduction to the south island through the amazing Marlborough Sounds. We have driven through some stunning scenery this side of the country; snow capped mountains, coast line, and Tom saw his first wild seal this morning and his millionth one about five minutes later in Kiakora on the east coast. We're driving south towards Christchurch today and then tomorrow we're going to make our way west to Mount Cook.
We also got to meet the littlest members of Tom's family, Jesse and Bradley who were so smiley and fun and their mum Emma.
We were also taken out to visit the local sites including Mount Maunganui which has great views of Tauranga from the summit. Tauranga itself was a nice city which increased its appeal when we had fush end chups down on the wharf, staright from the sea. Shirley lent us her car to do a couple of day trips. We visited Rotorua with it's mud pools and hot springs one day and the Karagahake Gorge another day which is very close to katikati and absolutely beautiful. Unfortunately the rain prevented us from doing any walking but we managed to squeeze in lunch at a winery instead.
We collected our new van - a monster compared to the one we had in Australia - from Aukland about 5 days ago and headed south on South Highway 1. We went in some great hot springs around lake Taupo that flowed straight into the river which was a highlight for me. It was a bit like being in Jenny's hot tub!
The Dept. of Conservation has great campsites here, loads of which are free in some lovely places so we've been staying at those mainly.
Yesterday we caught the ferry from Wellington to Picton. It's a notoriously bad bit of water the Cook Straights, but we didn't see a single wave. It was a lovely sunny day which gave us the best introduction to the south island through the amazing Marlborough Sounds. We have driven through some stunning scenery this side of the country; snow capped mountains, coast line, and Tom saw his first wild seal this morning and his millionth one about five minutes later in Kiakora on the east coast. We're driving south towards Christchurch today and then tomorrow we're going to make our way west to Mount Cook.
Sunday, 2 August 2009
Marlborogh Sounds, South Island
The view from the ferry and our introduction to the South Island
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Sent from my mobile device
Saturday, 1 August 2009
New number
Communication in NZ is stupidly expensive so not as many updates from
here. However, we have a new phone number and here it is: +64 210 580
228
here. However, we have a new phone number and here it is: +64 210 580
228
--
Sent from my mobile device
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